Nothing says Milwaukee like the lakefront, the place where the urban fabric meets a curve of freshwater, and several internationally recognized architects and designers will compete to transform it.

Called the Lakefront Gateway Plaza, the urban design project promises to refashion and make more coherent a stretch of lakefront in and around existing cultural structures, such as Summerfest, Discovery World, the Milwaukee Art Museum and Milwaukee County War Memorial Center, as well as highly anticipated developments such as the massive Northwestern Mutual headquarters, the planned Couture apartment tower, the streetcar project and roadway changes. | Updated: 5:40 p.m.»Read Full Article

Melinda Davenport, who joined WISN-TV (Channel 12) as anchor of its morning show's breaking news desk in March 2014, has been named co-anchor of the "12 News This Morning."

Davenport, who has been filling in at the job for months, replaces Marianne Lyles, who left WISN in December to co-anchor the morning news show at WTTV-TV in Indianapolis. She formally joins co-anchor Patrick Paolantonio, effective immediately. | March 3, 2015 2:56 p.m.»Read Full Article

CHICAGO (AP) - Oprah Winfrey will close Harpo Studios in Chicago, where she filmed "The Oprah Winfrey Show" for more than 20 years, this December, and will transition production for her cable network to a studio in California.

Harpo Studios and the Oprah Winfrey Network made the announcement Tuesday. OWN recently moved into a new studio in West Hollywood, California, and work currently done at Harpo Studios in Chicago will now be done there. | Updated: 12:45 p.m.»Read Full Article

That's for a couple of reasons. Monday, the "Last Time!" tour stopped at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, for Manilow's 15th concert in the city over the past 40 years. Nothing personal against the venue, but there were curtained off sections, and multiple pockets of empty seats. Fans — and Manilow — deserved the intimacy and electricity of a packed theater for this possible farewell. | March 3, 2015 12:10 p.m.»Read Full Article

But for the band's next Milwaukee show June 20, it will return to cozier quarters at the Riverside Theater — and almost certainly perform songs from at least one of the two new albums frontman Jim James told Rolling Stone the band was working on. | Updated: 8:22 a.m.»Read Full Article

LONDON (AP) - Predictions of doom for the Dowager Countess of Grantham may be premature.

"Downton Abbey" publicists say Maggie Smith was misinterpreted in remarks widely reported as suggesting she will leave the TV show after its sixth season later this year. | Updated: 8:03 a.m.»Read Full Article

Brandi Carlile, "The Firewatcher's Daughter" (ATO). Jumping to a new label and adjusting to life with wife and child, the busking-tested Pacific Northwesterner gives full-throated voice to the vocations on both sides of the "singer-songwriter" hyphen with her passionately varied fifth album.

Kelly Clarkson, "Piece By Piece" (RCA). On her latest studio album, which she previewed last week on Twitter, the "American Idol" alumnus and winner balances the personal with the popular, marking, she has said, the second phase of her career and guest-starring John Legend. | March 2, 2015»Read Full Article

"Pilot Error," a drama about a Milwaukee newspaper reporter out to investigate the disappearance of a French jetliner, is getting screenings this week in the Fox Valley.

The movie — which is partly set and was filmed in part in Milwaukee, and includes several Milwaukee connections behind and in front of the camera — is showing at Marcus Theatres' Appleton East Cinema March 2, Green Bay East Cinema March 4 and Oshkosh Cinema March 5. (See Marcus' website for details.) | March 2, 2015»Read Full Article

NEW YORK (AP) - Daytime television's most popular personality, "Judge Judy" Sheindlin, has extended her contract for three years and plans to keep her court in session into 2020.

CBS Television Distribution didn't discuss terms of the deal Monday. TV Guide has reported her current salary at $47 million a year - making her by far the highest-paid personality on television. Sheindlin is 72. | March 2, 2015»Read Full Article

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Maxee Maxwell, a member of the 1990s girl group Brownstone - best known for the hit "If You Love Me" - has died after cutting herself in a fall at home, a representative said Monday.

Courtney Barnes told The Associated Press that Maxwell, 46, was at her home in Los Angeles on Friday when she fell and cut her neck on a drinking glass. Her husband, producer Carsten "Soulshock" Schack, found her sometime later and called 911. She was rushed to a hospital where she died, Barnes said. | March 2, 2015»Read Full Article

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Former rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight told a judge that he is suffering from blindness and other health complications moments before he was taken to a hospital Monday morning.

Knight told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Brandlin that he had fired attorneys handling his murder case and was receiving inadequate medical treatment while in custody. | March 2, 2015»Read Full Article

It was a nine course meal, if you count the amuse-bouche and the three desserts, including the blue cheese ice cream with little cubes of poached pears and an artful balsamic reduction swirl on the plate. The skyline view was one of the more spectacular I've experienced here.

No, we weren't dining at one of Milwaukee's finest restaurants or one of the many fashionable newcomers either. We were in the modest-sized Brewers Hill apartment of two artists. It was the latest in what seems to be a growing trend of artist-driven conceptual feasts, a folding together of the creative class and foodie scene for one-night events. | March 2, 2015»Read Full Article

It's quickly turning into Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars' year on top of the Billboard Hot 100 as they spend their eighth week at number one. Watch - and dance along with - their catchy hit and find out which songs were on top this week back in 2003, 1993, 1983 and 1973.

The Milwaukee Ballet's 2015-'16 season should appeal not only to dance fans but also to book lovers and Beatlemaniacs. It includes several full-length story ballets derived from classic literature and a dance by Trey McIntyre set to the music of the Fab Four.

Unless otherwise noted, all performances will take place in the Marcus Center's Uihlein Hall, 929 N. Water St. | March 2, 2015»Read Full Article

Tonight is the debut of Taste & Toast, five nights of bottles and bites in downtown Milwaukee. Look for specials from 4 to 7 p.m. from Ale Asylum Riverhouse to Water Buffalo. | March 2, 2015»Read Full Blog Post